Japanese Audio/subs on US Blue Ray Disks

If you were like me, and completely unaware of it, it might upset you just a hair to know that beautifully done Japanese was within your fingertips for potentially some of your favorite movies, or at least movies you’re willing to watch. A handful of BD( Blue ray Disk) movies from America is set up with pesky ‘hidden’ audio tracks in a few more languages.

So First off, here is a list of some well known blue ray movies from America that have hidden Japanese audio(sub) tracks presented on a forum that I’ve pulled here.

• Appleseed Exmachina : Audio
• Batman Begins : Subtitles / Audio
• Batman Gotham Knight : Subtitles / Audio
• Beetlejuice : Subtitles / Audio
• Blade Runner : Subtitles
• Bourne Trilogy, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Constantine : Subtitles / Audio (need to put player settings to Japanese)
• Dark Knight, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Death Race (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Dragon Ball Z Broly double feature : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z Dead Zone/World’s Strongest : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z History of Trunks/Bardock Father of Goku : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z Tree of Might/Lord Slug : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z Cooler double feature- : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13 / Bojack Unbound : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z: Broly Triple Feature : Audio
• Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn / Wrath of the Dragon : Audio
• Diebuster : Audio
• Dirty Harry : Subtitles / Audio
• Eraser : Subtitles / Audio
• Every Which Way But Loose : Subtitles / Audio
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete : Audio
• First Knight : Subtitles / Audio
• Freedom : Audio
• Gauntlet, the : Subtitles / Audio
• Gunbuster : Audio
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets : Subtitles / Audio
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire : Subtitles / Audio
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix : Subtitles / Audio
• Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone : Subtitles / Audio
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban : Subtitles / Audio
• Hellboy II (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• How the west was won : Subtitles
• Hulk (2003) : Subtitles / Audio
• Interview with the Vampire : Subtitles / Audio
• Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade : Audio
• Kill Bill Vol 1 : Subtitles
• Kill Bill Vol 2 : Subtitles
• Kingdom of Heaven : Subtitles
• La Haine (EU) : Subtitles
• Letters From Iwo Jima : Audio
• Lost Boys; the : Subtitles
• Matrix Ultimate collection, the : Subtitles / Audio (need to put player settings to Japanese)
• Mummy Trilogy, the (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Natural Born Killers : Subtitles / Audio
• Ocean’s 11 : Subtitles / Audio
• Ocean’s 12 : Subtitles / Audio
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest : Subtitles
• One Piece Movie 8: The Desert Princess and the Pirates – Adventures in Alabasta : Audio
• Outbreak : Subtitles / Audio
• Paprika : Audio
• Perfect Storm : Subtitles / Audio
• Samurai 7 : Audio
• Serenity (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Shinobi Heart Under Blade : Audio
• Signs : Subtitles / Audio
• SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers The Next : Audio
• Speed Racer (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Sweeney Todd (EU/HK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Tekkon Kinkreet : Audio
• V for vendetta : Subtitles / Audio
• Van Helsing (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Wings Of Honneamise, the : Subtitles / Audio
• Wanted (UK) : Subtitles / Audio
• Yukikaze : Audio
• Zodiac – Director’s Cut (EU/AU) : Subtitles / Audio

You can also, simply search the Blue ray web site and use filters to find dvd’s from your country with Japanese audio and subs.

Out of these, I personally have bought V for Vendetta and Batman Begins, because that is the only ones in the store from the list. They were a lowly $10 a piece. That’s a nice price tag for Japanese language, movie I like, and quality of Blue Ray.

However, now I shall talk about the more saddening parts. When I came home super excited about watching Batman and V, I popped them in my play station 3 without any hesitation.

Where was the Japanese? I got really upset, I couldn’t find them, on either video. So I went online, and most people who could see it had either a Japanese region Blue ray player, or had set their PS3 to Japanese. Well, this is where I was getting sad, simply because I had my PS3 set to Japanese. I decided not to give up, as many people wouldn’t talk about it if it weren’t true, so I delved into my PS3 settings and realized there was a setting for default language of the actual Blue ray disks themselves. After popping that setting in Japanese, my disks then played in Japanese and had both audio and subs.

I wasn’t impressed with the subs for V for Vendetta because they weren’t exact subs. The audio was really good however, and didn’t distract me from the goodness of the movie. I really like the voice actor for V too. I haven’t watched Batman Begins just yet, but I’m looking forward to see who they have voicing Batman.

So if you have a BD player that isn’t from Japan, go ahead and check to see if there is a language, default setting, that can switch it to Japanese, and make sure to set the BD settings in your PS3 to Japanese as well.

In my area, a lot of these bds were between $10-20 a piece. That’s a pretty decent price, if you consider what it would take to get a Japanese BD from Japan sent over! I hope everyone enjoys this knowledge if it is new for you, as I certainty was super happy to find out myself! Interview with the Vampire up next! yay!

 

My Adventure Pack

Hello again everyone! This is my first post as an official co-writer of the blog! Today I’ll be writing about my Adventure Pack. What in the HFIL could that be? I’ll show you… with photos!!

So basically it’s my manbag, full of Japanese immersion materials. I have actually tried various receptacles of all shapes and sizes and found this one, a 10 inch netbook case, to be ideal at the moment! The purpose of such a collection is that whenever going out of the house, I can grab this with confidence that part of my immersion environment can come with me. The best part is, it’s self-sustained. There is a handy spot to put the charges for all devices, so no matter what I know I always have access.

The power that’s inside

So here’s what’s usually inside:

• Android phone (Anki, some LWT access, converted videos, mix of music and audio rips, access to Japanese sites, twitter, Aedict dictionary)
• Kindle (Japanese materials that have gone through LWT, most blogs about language learning that I read are synced to this via Calibre too. The battery life in insane on this thing, lasting for a few weeks easily.)
• Nintendo DS (Games in Japanese can be hard to find on Android, especially with the production value that you can find on a console. The DS fills in this gap in abundance–one of the greatest platforms to exist!)
• Manga (Typically I take a browsing style approach to reading manga rather than focusing on each and every page/word. An example of extensive vs. intensive reading.)
• Printed materials (LWT printouts can be easier to go through in print because of the size of an 8×11 page, and the colour which would be lacking on the Kindle. Here is an opposite of intensive vs. extensive reading!)
• Chargers and cables (The icing on the cake, this means I will never run out of power for my equipment.)

Media recommendation: あいのり/Ainori (Reality Show)

All aboard the love wagon!

Something else I’d like to start doing is including a media recommendation with each post. It could be a game, drama, anime, website, anything. And of course, an explanation of why it’s especially useful will be included! This week it’s a reality show called あいのり/Ainori. The premise of the show should be familiar to the western audience. They take a group of single men and women, and fly them out to another country (the one I watched was Cambodia). Through an interesting tourist experience, they explore the country together, getting to know one another. If someone gets to really like one of the other members, they can arrange to confess their feelings by offering a pair of tickets back to Japan. The next morning, that person responds by either declining and returning the tickets, or making things official with a kiss.

The funny thing is, I never really watched these shows in English. But the familiar concept makes it easier to get into. This show also has stylized text for EVERY line of dialogue, and then some, making it easier to understand if you have some vocabulary behind you, and/or know some kanji meanings. It’s also very interesting to see another country through the eyes of this group. It was these two factors that really sucked me in to the show, watching anxiously until the last episode.

What about you? How do you keep up your immersion environment on the go? Please leave your comments below! And if you end up watching any episodes of あいのり, please tell me what you thought of it! See you next week!

 

Ipod Touch/Apple Immersion

This past Tuesday we had a great guest author come in and do a post on Android Immersion. Today I decided to talk about immersion on the Ipod Touch. I’m sure this could easily extend to iphone and ipad users alike as well. Ultimately you can obtain immersion in many different ways, but these little devices sure make it a little easier.

Wow, that's fanboy at its finest

While I wouldn’t go anywhere near as far as that guy, I will say that I use my ipod on a daily basis. Its always on my hip, just like my phone. It has its own share of annoyances and problems, but overall, I enjoy it as a tool for immersion. Its not the only device I use either, but it is the only one that I would be pretty sad without.

What you should have on your device?

In order to access the variety of apps you’ll need your device and the app store. You can just as equally download iTunes and browse through the app store through the program. I personally find it easier to search through the iTunes program because you can choose similar apps/podcasts to browse too, but then I search it on my ipod device on its app store app and download it there. For those of you like me, we find the whole syncing issue once you had to reformat your computer a big turn off. So I don’t sync anymore.

Music!

To the joy of a lot of us, especially those who really want to buy and support our favorite Japanese artists, there are actually a good amount of Japanese music available for download, including singles and albums. You can also put your mp3s onto your device through itunes or other applications other there.

Podcasts!

There are tons of really fun and useful podcasts out there. I personally do not get podcasts that are intended for language learning. I get podcasts that are real Japanese podcasts instead. Here are some of the ones I enjoy:

Female Voices Only Podcasts: I have many of these, because I’m a female and choose to listen to females over males. I also use them for shadowing, and shadowing males isn’t always good since they tend to use endings that aren’t very feminine.

Love Nature Episode (FM Fukuoka): These podcasts are by a single speaker and are tales of her nature experiences. This one is I want to say roughly 3 minutes a piece and there are lots of podcasts made by her.

もぉともスタイル (OpDi by PPL): This is actually a video podcast feature two females. I’ve seen them talk about food and decor amounts other things. Generally they record at the site they’re reviewing so the background noises can be a little annoying if you’re trying to hear them sometimes. I still enjoy them though and there are a handful of podcasts that are about 5-8 mins long.

ねえ、ねえ、聞いて!: This podcast is adorable. A single female does many episodes that are almost 15 mins each.

ラジオ　「女子だけ体育館に集合！！」: This podcast is about a group of girls. They can get crazy loud at times, but their conversations are laid back and fun.

松捕亜弥のオールナイト二ッポン「二ッポン放送」: This is another really cute podcast that is roughly 8ish mins long each. I’m not always sure what she’s talking about but its fun to listen to her voice alone.

川嶋あい勇気の唄「二ッポン放送」: This is a poem podcast. They are very short, but beautiful to listen to. If you like poetry readings to soft music, then this is the podcast for you.

Male or Mixed Podcasts:

エフエムくらしき「拝、ボーズ!!」：podcasts lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours! Lots of listening here. They talk about all sorts of things.

Junk Podcast: This one is most always all male and very funny.Look into if you like comedy.

Games!

I could go into a long long listing of games that I play on my ipod, but really there are only a few that are really the ticket to get started in. As a side note, a lot of these games are set up for multiple languages, and it follows whatever your phone’s language is set as. So this is a great way to make sure you stay immersed by setting your phone to Japanese.

Countries Top Apps! (blue icon, CTA lettering skewed over a man jumping and blue background): This app is awesome. You just select country and go down to Japan. Once there, you can choose a category, and then an app. It will redirect you to the store app where you can download it. Sometimes its buggy and sometime the app will not be available (for instance its an ipad app that’s not on the touch or phone and visa versa). I’ve found lots of games this way and other apps.

ぴよ盛り: This game I just could not live without. I have a high score of 94 and its very addictive. No there isn’t much Japanese in it but it still counts!

Kana Battle: This app is a really fun game on battling out your ability to do your kana tables. There are a few modes to choose from and its free.

I’m not really going to go over all the really cool dictionaries and learning apps out there like Anki, dropbox, and so on because they have already gotten covered at some point or another and because you can easily research all that in English, but I will say that I personally just use the internet on it to search for words instead of a dictionary app itself.

There are all sorts of games out there too, dating sims, story books, even cute little mushroom games, so keep your eyes peeled and don’t be afraid to search the app store with Japanese words. There are lots of cat related stuff even and that just takes one kanji to bring up tons of searches.

Movies and Shows!

Crunchyroll: This is a great app to have to view anime, drama, and a few movies on the fly. Only downfall is the lack of ability to take off subs.

The store has other movies in it, though I do not use it for those means, and finding credible sources on the internet about how to convert video files and get them on there is just as shady in some ways. If anyone knows of a legit, legal, good way of doing it, let me know in the comments below, because I’d really like to know myself.

Conclusions and tips:

Keeping your itouch ready to go is really easy if you keep charging stations everywhere, or even purchase a docking station to listen to your music much louder. I have a charging cord on my computer, in my bedroom, and in my car. Makes life really easy.

I personally use a small protection case and do not use a screen cover. I’m careful and haven’t had anything happen to it so far. Grab some headphones to go and you’re ready for some action! The life of the battery says it lasts for about 8 hours, but I find that I kill it much fast often because I’m playing games and listening to music all the time.

Have fun! Comment and question below!

Upcoming posts will tell you how to set your phones/devices into target language and set up an international keyboard so keep a heads up!

 

Android Immersion

Meet your new little green friend

If there is one single piece of equipment that has absolutely revolutionized language learning, it’s mobile computers. Whether we’re talking about smartphones or tablets, they have become a true all-in-one tool for your immersion needs. My favorite mobile operating just so happens to be Google Android, and today I’ll be showing you how a single Android device can be all you need to create a Japanese immersion environment anywhere.

O HAI! I will make you awesome at Japanese.

Now don’t get me wrong, in my Japanese action pack I have paper books, a DS, and those sorts of things too, but there’s something appealing about the idea of a single device that fits in my pocket being able to provide me everything I need for my immersion environment. So with that in mind, I’ll be showing you how you can get your Android device fully equipped with comics, music, audio, video, articles, stories, SRSing, and even games in Japanese.

They have the Internet on computers now?

What should you have on your device?

The Android Market has a huge library of software available, with no shortage of great tools to help you with your Japanese. Here are some free, must-have applications for your mobile device. (Click on the title to view it on the Market. You can actually install them on your device remotely from your PC!)

I have the POWER... of native Japanese media.

AnkiDroid – One program that should need to introduction–fully supported on Android! You can easily sync with your decks with the push of a button, taking them with you wherever you go! The VAST majority of my SRS reps are done on a mobile device. Laying down, lunch time at work, waiting in line–anywhere. Having this tool as a mobile app is worth the price of a device 3 times over! You seriously won’t know how you lived without it before. By sure to also install Aedict, Japanese dictionary that can actually integrate with Anki.

QQPlayer - Video player compatible with many formats, and very mobile friendly. I would recommend using Miro Video Converter on your PC to convert the files first to ensure smooth playback. You can actually select formats that are specifically friendly to Android. Amazingly there is little to no quality loss, but for whatever reason doing the conversion greatly improves playback.

Google Reader – To subscribe to Japanese RSS feeds such as the ever-entertaining maru, or to catch up on your favorite blogs with great Japanese learning tips…

Aldiko – Simply the best eReader application for Android, supports epub, doc, pdf to name a few (and supports Japanese text too of course). The great thing about eReaders is how it just keeps your place automatically. Just load up the app and in half a second you’ve got an electronic book, opened right where you left off. This app is highly customizable for things like background color, fonts, and even separately controlled brightness. It makes reading in any language a thing of pure convenience. I like getting familiar with traditional stories, if you’re looking for an easy place to get started. (It’s amazing how often other media references these tales!) There are many good places to find stories, and Aldiko is quite good at adapting to whatever format you import, so give it a try!

Droid Comic Viewer – Excellent comic viewer for Android! There are actually some legitimate sources for getting comics, or you can take a plunge and create your own scans.

Hotmix Radio/JapanFM - A France based streaming radio service that among many genres, just so happens to have an all-Japanese station AND an Android app to tune in. It’s a great way to discover new bands, to just easily tune into non-stop music, this is a must for your device. Just be careful if you’re using this over your mobile network as it can add up to a massive bill. Probably best to only use it on wifi!

Songbird/Stock music player – For the most part, whatever your built-in audio player is should be just fine. Music is of course one of the obvious choices for audio on your device. There are many ways to discover great new bands, such as tuning in to JapanFM, or looking up similar artists with a service like LastFM.

Something else I’ve been successful with is mixing in audio rips from drama and anime in with the music. It actually ends up feeling like listening to a radio station, going back and forth between music and dialogue. First, rip the audio to mp3 with a program like Free Video to MP3 converter, then split the files into a length of your choice (I’d recommend 2-5 minutes) with a program such as Slice Audio File Splitter. If you’re noticing a big volume difference between the music and the ripped audio try this: Copy all the files to your device, and then put them all through MP3 Gain. What this does is lowers or increases the volume of all your audio to make them the same. The help file is actually very helpful when it comes to explaining how to do it correctly! I would recommend only doing this to the copies on your device, rather than the originals since the change is permanent.

Games - Suffice to say there are games in Japanese on Android, especially if you can set your device’s language to Japanese. (For example, my tablet supports many languages including Japanese, but many phones here in Canada only support English, French and often Chinese.) It’s the sort of thing that’s very much left to personal taste, so feel free to explore the market on this one!

Which device is for me?

There are certainly many choices for devices, especially when it comes to size and connectivity! Handhelds, small tablets, big tablets, wifi, mobile networks, oh my! There are certainly ups and downs to each combination. Having tried a few, let me give you comparisons!

This little guy is waiting for you, but on which device!?

Handheld – For Android (unlike with say, the iPod), handheld usually means a smartphone. Let me tell you, the convenience of having an always available Internet connection quickly becomes a must. The only downside is the bill of course! This size is certainly more discreet than a tablet, especially for things like using Anki while waiting in line and so on. Having something that can literally fit in your pocket makes it a true bring-everywhere device.

Small (~7″) tablets – This size is in between even the largest cell phones and a full tablet. If it weren’t for the fact that at this time, no true cell phone has this form factor, I would say it’s the one to rule them all. If they had a cell phone of this size that could still accept regular voice calls and text messages, you wouldn’t need anything else (except maybe a DS!). If you’re only getting one device this could be a good compromise between portability and screen real estate, but if you already have a cell phone with a large screen, you’ll probably find it isn’t bigger enough to feel advantageous as a second device. Which brings us to…

Large (~10″) tablets – What a full sized tablet lacks in being discreet, it makes up for in comfort. This fact especially shines in areas such as watching videos or reading text, particularly with websites that are not formatted for mobile devices. (While it is great to use something like Anki with nice big text, I admit it’s more effective to use that on a more pocket sized device, doing a few card throughout the day, here there and everywhere.) Personally, my 10″ tablet is also meant to be a substitute for my laptop when away from home, so the large size plays a bigger role (pun intended!).

Conclusion - I tend to use my phone more for some things, and my tablet more for others, although I have both set up for everything. Here’s my typical usage for each device when it comes to Japanese:

• Phone - Anki, music, games (basically things that I want to be able to do anywhere and everywhere)
• Tablet - Video, websites, comics, eReader (basically things that I want to be able to sit back on the couch to do)

If you can only select one device, I would probably say go with a smartphone if you can foot the bill, or a smaller tablet if you’d rather not pay for data usage. If you can get both though, definitely do a smartphone + large tablet. Whatever your choice is, you will certainly be happy using it in your Japanese learning adventures!

Non-immersion tips

A bit of advice for getting the most of your device when, especially when on the move!

This method works for mobile devices too!

• Always bring your charger with you. It’s too easy to forget and then suddenly be on low battery when a good opportunity to use it comes up!
• In extreme situations you can even get a second/extended life battery to be really sure the action never stops!
• A protective case is a must. Rubberized ones are the best in my opinion. These devices aren’t cheap, but the cases are, so protect your investment!

Thank you for reading! I hope that getting on board with a mobile device will revolutionize your Japanese learning just like it has done to mine!

 

Kanjirific Game of the Month (February)

Another month, another game for kanji!

This game is more of a learning aid, but it feels like a game to be, testing me and giving me happy music when I am successful. This game is also in Japanese from Japan! What better way to get that good ol’ Japanese in?

DS陰山メソッド 正しい漢字かきとりくん 今度は漢検対策だよ!

Kageyama Method: Tadashii Kanji Kakitori-Kun – Kondo wa Kanken Taidaku Dayo!

  (image from playasia’s website)

I stumbled upon this game a long time ago when I was simply looking for Japanese games for my DS. This game came highly recommended for learners and I couldn’t pass it up. When I first put it in, it was a little intimidating because I didn’t know much beyond kana and some kanji. It didn’t prevent me from doing a lot in the game however, and it has aided my ability to produce good looking kanji and more importantly correct stroke kanji. This game also gives you lots of practice filling in blanks type of questions for kanji and their associated sounds.

You can purchase the game easily in Amazon.jp and playasia’s website. I personally used playasia at the time due to extreme lack of Japanese skills at the time, and must say was very happy. I got the game quickly and had no issues with their site for all the games I’ve purchased so far.

Sporktacular has a great deal of videos about this game and you can find them starting here. His is the older version which has almost 1 thousand less kanji, so I would get the 2nd release linked above. Though from what I can tell about his videos, they still look very similar.

What I personally like about it you get:

Kakitori (かきとり):

This section has all your kana, and kanji from the official jouyou kanji (1,945). I’m sure it doesn’t reflect the most recent changes to the jouyou actually now that I think about it because the game was released in 2008 I think. You come to a calendar that lets you know when you’ve practice last, and the little professor dude says things like hi, take breaks, and study well sorts of things. Then in the main feature you’ll have a grid on the left and tabs filled with kana/kanji on the right. You can see your percentage grade on each attempted kana/kanji with a click of a button.

If you click on a character you will have these options for both kana and kanji. You can write the character from memory, or you can view the stroke order on your left. You can also choose a shadow version on your drawing side to help you out. You can erase the character if you feel you could have done better, if not you hit the button to move forward to grading. It grades based on a lot of things, stroke order, spacing and proportioning, and so on. You can view tips and actions that will improve your writing and choose to redraw or move onto the next character in line. At any time you can leave this section.

The difference between kana and kanji however is that you will see a small book icon on the kanji character’s screens. This basically opens up a little mini menu that gives you helpful information about the kanji. You get readings, meanings, and vocabulary words in sentences. Its a pretty helpful tool if you’re still learning about kanji.

Honestly I’ve used this section more than any other section to start off with, due to the fact that at the time my Japanese was not advanced enough to move onto the other sections. Navigating to this section is really easy and does not require you to know Japanese at all. Fiddling around with buttons will not mess you up in this section either.

Drill (どりる)

I’m not sure if these sections are the same in both versions, so I will be explaining the version that I specifically linked. This section starts off with 6 options.And then within each option you have the chance to get a tutorial, or to begin. From there you will have additional options. They’re basically school levels, the top is the lowest school grade and last in the top school grade. So the more kanji you know (if you base it on school level) the higher student level you’ll want to pick.

Many of them will have the book icon on the right hand side which will give more information about the kanji involved.

漢字（かんじ）- kanji – The explanation is pretty simple, you are given a sentence with a blank, and you will see the kana for it, you write the appropriate kanji. Sometimes you can even have multiple entries in one sentence to figure out.

部首　（ぶしゅ）- radical – Basically this one will show a kanji, and a part of it will be in red. You have to choose the name for the radical. I’m not sure if this is really helpful, unless you’re planning to be a guru of kanji.

類義語　（るいぎご）- synonym – This game is a stretch your mind game, it basically gives you a word, then you’re suppose to come up with a word that is similar in meaning when it only gives you a part of the word and the sounds. Sometimes I cheat and use a dictionary to help me!

対義語 （たいぎご）- antonym – This game is just like the previous one, except it deals with opposites. Lots of fun! These two really help create word combos in your head!

四字熟語 （よじじゅくご） – four-character idiomatic compounds – In this example you’ll be given a 4 character idiomatic compound with a kanji missing. with the provided kana, your job is to figure out the kanji that fits. This is difficult! Regardless if you get it right or wrong, you will get information on the compound.

熟語構成　（じゅくごこうせい） – idiom configuration – honestly, I have no idea what this is about! haha. From what I gather from the game, you choose one of 5 options, アイウエオ, and each are…explanations like, the two kanji’s conflict, or are the same, or so and so forth. Not sure AT ALL…so if anyone has insight on this section of the game, post away. I’ve never really played this section much at all.

Last you have the third option, as if those fun drills and information wasn’t enough!

Measuring Kanken (漢検対策)

This section is kind of a wrapping it up tester. If you select the bottom of the two options available you can set your grade level. Mine I think is set to 1. It basically reduces the difficulty of kanji (in terms of meaning for schooling in the Japanese system) and often has simple concepts. This testing is basically a review. It shows you the kanji in a sentence and you have to figure out the sounds (kana) associated with the red lined part. You can also view stats on the kanji you’ve learned and you can exit out with the bottom green option.

While I suppose some can argue that this game isn’t a ‘game’ I consider it a game since I play it on my ds. Nothing says lets get it on, Kanji! like a ds. If you didn’t know, DS is a non region coded device and can play games from Japan without any special requirements. You can also set the DS into the Japanese language. Overall this game as been a go to for fun. The stylus can be a little awkward if you’re not use to writing with one, but I got over that really quickly early on. I also noticed that knowing stroke order allows me to read calligraphy easier.

Hope you enjoyed this month review of a game for Kanji! Stay tuned next month for a prominent or made up game!

 

Setting Up Japanese Text on Your Computer

Japanese Text on Your Computer!

As I talked a little in the last post about not needing a Japanese only keyboard, I thought that it might be mighty helpful to tell you guys how to go about getting the input set up on your computers. If you haven’t done so yet, I’m sure you might be a little hesitant about it too, but it’s actually quite painless and there are lots of sites talking about it too. To boot, you really don’t have to worry about a Japanese keyboard because lots of Japanese people use a Japanese/English keyboard themselves. In fact, out of all my native friends over there, they all use the same input method I’m about to show you.

Luckily the input method is kind of straight forward. While there may be a few things here or there that aren’t exactly logical, most everything thing is. If you know your kana, then this will be a cinch. If you don’t know your kana, I suggest you back up and learn it. It makes it very hard to try and type in a language you don’t even know!

Most srs/Japanese learning books/systems out there will use what’s called romaji. While romaji is the devil, it does prove to make typing a lot easier. For instance, if you want the symbol “あ” to show up you simply type “a”. If you want the character “か” to show up, you type in “ka”. While there might be a few variants between mac and pcs, the input should be pretty much dead on the same. It even accounts for names, places, and special katakana that I’m sure you as a beginner has yet to seen.

There is a lot of inputs that can change into symbols to make for some epic typing to your friends as well. For more information on that, I’ll simply defer to Koichi’s post from Textfugu.

So if you’re not excited yet, well, pooey on you! Typing in Japanese can open the doorway to a lot more possibilities than typing romaji ever would. Once you switch to the real deal your learning abilities should skyrocket compared to a life of romaji. Learning how to use your input isn’t so hard either, and learning the number of character to type with is easy cakes!

Windows!

The linked guides will also show you how to view Japanese on your computer as well. If you see a bunch of empty or numbered boxes, ???? strings, or weird symbols, its most likely because you’ve yet to install the Eastern Asian Languages on your Windows.

Since I’m all about recycling good information out there in the world, I’m simply going to direct you to the right places already out there. That’s the great thing about the internet. Luckily Robert Y. Eng has laid it all out for us!

Win 2000 Pro |   XP |   Vista |   7

While Win 7′s guide is written by Coscom, they do a good job with pictures and it’s not that different if you were use to the set up from XP and Vista. Windows takes a little work to get started, and sometimes bugs out though. Try not to let it get ya down! haha.

Mac

Not having owned a Mac myself, I can’t tell you how accurate the setup is, however a lot of sites mirror this post from Coscom about how to set it up. I’m guessing no matter which OS you have set up, it’s all pretty much the same. Lovingly Mac must have realized a lot of people want to learn Asian languages because it’s already installed on the Mac. Just a few clicks and you’ll be set up in no time.

Feeling Shaky?

If you’re still a little iffy on how to go about inputting and you know your kana tables, I’d recommend Coscom’s typing lessons. The lessons go step by step with lots of pictures and easy layout to follow. They even have input charts complete with all the new and weird Katakana! You can simply print that out and have it near by for any issues you may be having! While I may not be a fan of their lessons and such, you cannot pass up their typing guide if you’re new to it.

Good luck all you Japanese typing fiends and have fun!

 

Electronic Heaven

Electronics for Learning

More non-Region Coded Devices

As discussed before there are a handful of devices like the NDS that doesn’t have region codes, however there are a lot that does.  Movies and players are the big contenders that you might be interested in that may be hard for you as a beginner to obtain. I remember being told to Amazon.jp when I couldn’t figure out the process or told to Google.jp when I didn’t recognize anything. It can seem frustrating when you don’t know at least some keywords to get you closer to your goal.

DVD Players: Luckily there are a lot of people out there who realized this and started to make cool sites like Flutterscape where you can purchase items like this dvd player to play all your Japanese discs. To boot you can also buy a lot of shows and movies too, all in English if you’re a bit worried when money comes to play. Ebay also can sometimes have items, but as with both, it can sometimes cost you a pretty penny. While all in all you could befriend someone in Japan (native or non) who could buy and ship you what you want, using paypal. Being resourceful at this stage in your learning can have a huge impact in the end.

The great thing is, you really don’t have to buy a dvd player from Japan to play Japanese movies. Luckily people like Sony have realized this (and only me now! haha) and have quite a few number of models to play any region. Here is some information taken from the buyer’s guide for Bargain Offer‘s website for their dvds.

Region 1: USA and Canada

Region 2: Europe, Japan, The Middle East, North Africa Egypt, Hong Kong

Region 3: Taiwan, The Philippines, Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong

Region 4: Mexico, South America, Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands, Caribbean

Region 5: Russia, Eastern Europe, India, North Korea, East & West Africa

Region 6: China

While they have a great number of dvd players to choose from, you can go the extra mile and choose region only coded dvd players. Though in this case, I don’t see why. If you plan to buy Blue Ray, well, expect to pay a pretty penny as that technology is still new.

PC Games: While the games themselves are not really region coded, meaning you can buy a game from Japan and you can play it on your computer, simply buying the game from your target country is really all you have to do. Some MMO’s don’t even require that. Downloading the game and changing the ui is very simple, like with Eve Online and Second Life. Both of those MMO’s have a large Japanese player base.

Recording Devices

A great way to tackle your non native pronunciation is recording yourself. This is just one way to use handy recording devices. Lost at what to get? Well, though you could get an old fogy cassette player/recorder and blank cassettes, this is really a much slower process.

A great device to work with is your PC. You already have the recording software built into it, I’m sure. MS’s “Sound Recorder” comes standard with all the major MS OSes, and though I don’t own a Mac, I’m sure they have a simple recorder too. There are great programs like Audacity as well, that makes recording a lot more fun (more on Audacity later)

A lot of phones out there today also have recording abilities, as well as niffty little digital recorders that you can buy as cheep as 20 or so bucks from Wal-Mart.

In the end, you simply want to record yourself and compare it to a native saying the same thing. Its nice if you can replay both audio multiple times to you can hear what you need to improve on. A lot of people may even be surprised to find they don’t sound all that wrong, just little things here and there that make the difference in sounding Japanese or sounding foreign.

A great tip on comparison recording is to lead into what you want to say. For instance, if you’re wanting to check how you say a word like “元気” you might want to do a whole sentences or words before and after like “こんにちは。元気ですか？”. It’s the same with English. When we separate words, often times we will say them differently than when they’re stringed together in a sentence. If you’re focusing to hard on one word, you could be doing it differently anyways than if you were doing a whole sentence.

MP3 Players

Luckily you don’t have to have a special anything to play mp3s from Japan on your English mp3 player. There are so many ways to get mp3s cheap and easy that I wont even go into it. Here are some tips though on using your mp3 player.

• don’t buy something expensive when you can buy something cheap that does exactly what you need. (Ipods are awesome, but if you’re needing something basic, iPods are just too expensive and often filled with a lot of features you’ll never use.)
• gauge how long you’ll be away from your computer and base your size on that. (I’m never away for more than 3 hour stints usually with the occasional two-day trip to relatives, so I have a very small size mp3 player with the option to add in an sd card.)
• headphones can make or break your mp3 time, so make sure they’re comfortable and wont easily fall off (ear buds can be especially difficult for some of us. They now make around the ear ones that are still small.)

Headphones and other Devices

If you’re one who has to constantly have headphones on while at the computer, I’m sure you can understand that the excessive usage can really start to hurt you if you don’t have something nice. Here is where I support the splurge idea. Of course, my splurge was only 50 bucks when I got an awesome set a month ago. Plantronics makes a few really nice and inexpensive headphones that come with mics. This is really nice for those long hours skyping/recording your audio/listening to your music/videos, ect.

If you’re suddenly finding yourself needing them and have never worn them before you can work yourself up to longer hours. It’s like wearing hats for the first time, they can sometimes cause headaches, make your head feel a little weird where the pressure was, and sometimes if they’re crappy enough actually pinch and rub you raw. Start by just putting them on for short bursts like 10-15 mins, and taking equally long breaks from them. Soon you can find yourself working up to longer hauls.

Tablets: If you’ve never heard of this wonderful device you might be happy to know about it. While it can be used in many applications for learning Japanese, its 100% frivolous and unnecessary. But we all know how we like to have those kinds of things! Tablets are expensive. There are a few cheaper ones though if you’re really itching to have one. I just happened to have one beforehand due to drawing and such on photoshop and mine cost me roughly 100 bucks.

For sites like Scritter using a tablet can make it really nice. For a lot of kanji recognition software out there it is also very useful, as using a mouse can sometimes be a little awkward and wouldn’t represent how your hand would move exactly anyways. But I definitely wouldn’t recommend this expensive item until you’ve proven to yourself you’re going to stick with it in the long haul.

I personally recommend Wacom’s tablets as they’re awesome (and I have one ). They have a sleek awesome line out now that does all sorts of things and you might even find yourself never using a mouse again anyways.

Keyboard: I often hear people asking me how in the world I type in Japanese with my English computer and keyboard and why I don’t have a Japanese one. Well, honestly you don’t need to go out and get a Japanese keyboard when Mac and PC’s already have the ability to use inputting methods to produce that lovely Japanese text.

Going all out and getting one that is English/Japanese isn’t too hard either. They sell them on Amazon as well as all over the place. If you’re feeling particularly tinkerish, you can always set your current keyboard up too and buy stickers or use whiteout/marker to mark them.

 

Get Your Play On!

Non-Region Coded Devices: Nintendo DS + PS3

This article is written for the gamers at heart. Believe it or not, I’m a gamer. Yeah, we females are becoming power house gamers too these days. You’ll find it probably interesting to know that women play more console games than males! Booyah! We even got a website you men aren’t allowed on! (well i guess you can go there lol, but do you really wanna?).

Anyhow, If you’ve not heard, or aren’t much of a console gamer, you’ll be happy to know that the Nintendo DS (and its varieties) as well as the PS3 are not region coded. So what’s region coded mean?

Region codes are simply formats of games and systems. For instance, if you’re in America and you buy an xbox from an American shop like EB Games, you’re buying it with a NTCS region code. It means that it will play any games that are coded NTCS. It usually means English only (with maybe some Spanish or French). Even the PS2 was Region coded. If you wanted to play a game from Europe you would have to buy both the PAL coded PS2 and PAL coded games. And for Japanese, JAP system and JAP formated games.

All in all, it made some gamers who could speak multiple languages unhappy, as well as, a lot of times games weren’t released here in America that were released elsewhere. If you looked at a listing of NDS games, you’d find a lot in Japanese that does not have an English counterpart.

So, summing up, NDS and PS3′s bought in America can play games bought almost anywhere. You don’t have to special order the system. If you already own them, you’ll notice that you can also set their user interface in Japanese. It’s another way I plug myself into immersion. By now you might be asking yourself what kind of games are out there, and what not.

Since the NDS is seen as a learning tool for many countries and gamers, there are a large number of “games” devoted to it. There are games that are made for Japanese people by Japanese people to help you learn/use/practice your Kanji, Kana, grammar, and such. Here is a listing of a lot of games you may consider along your way for getting in that good old studying:

Anpanman AIUEO Kyoushitsu: This game is kid orientated, teaching you hiragana. It also has mic recordings to test your sounds, games, and such. It touches on some katakana as well. It’s a cute fun game that you might find rewarding if you’re starting out. Getting set up only takes a bit of playing around, but it’s very straight forward even if you don’t speak Japanese.

Maru Kaite DonDon Oboeru: Kyoui no Tsugawa Shiki Kanji Kioku Jutsu: This game is a lesser known Kanji learning game.

Kanji Sonomama Rakubiki Jiten: Not really a game, but it is a great dictionary with example sentences and such. This was written for Japanese learning English, so not everything is in mind for the Japanese learner. I give it a thumbs up tho!

Kageyama Method – Dennou Hanpuku: Tadashii Kanji Kakitori kun: This particular game to me is a gem. It’s a lot of fun. There are multiple sections. It will help you write better as it grades your kana/kanji. It covers all the kana and quite a lot of kanji as well. (I believe it’s all the standard kanji through HS) There is also another section that tests your ability to come up with kanji based on context, another that tests your ability to say the kanji’s pronunciation through context, as well as one that uses the kana for you to come up with the Kanji. It also has levels you can choose. You can say you’re a 1st grader and you will only be tested on a handful of kanji, for instance I personally love this game, and my handwriting has improved a lot.

Zaidanhoujin Nippon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kounin: KanKen Ds: I hear this game contains over 25,000 problems using past Japanese Kanji tests (kaken) as well as contain a wealth of mini games for fun. Many claim however that this game is more advanced, so beginners might want to pass on this for now.

250万人の漢検 (250まんにんのかんけん): This is another kaken preparation test that goes from levels of you knowing no kanji to knowing lots! With over 47,000 problems to tackle that grades you based on time and correctness, it is known to be rather addictive. It keeps your stats and has roughly two dictionaries. It is also left handers compatible. There is also a second version of this and I have found conflicting reviews on how people feel concerning it.

DS美文字トレーニング: This game is all about the writing. You even get a niffty brush like stylus with the game. It has over 3,000 characters to practice, including the kana, so you wont run out of things to do for a while. It basically helps you create beautiful kanji, demand proper stroke order, and all the nuances like angles and radical alignment.

なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習 / Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshu: This and its sequel なぞっておぼえる大人の漢字練習 完全版 are games that seem to combine the love of kaken type and kakitori types but with more emphasis on kanji that is used more often. Roughly 1900 kanji are covered in the first and another 250 or so in the second. This one would better be used by intermediate learners. A great feature about this is it also has lots of example sentences, though the sentences range from simple to complex.

I could go on and on with games focused on these types of play for hours. There is a detailed listing of games over on Naruhondo (look at the ds category) with nice reviews as well.

Long story short, if you’re asking for a list of fun games to play that are Japanese, well, it probably wouldn’t be good to ask me since all our tastes are different, but here is some tips on finding one right for you:

• If you currently have a game you love that is in English, check to see if it has a Japanese counterpart.
• Google searches are great for finding all sorts of things, Play Asia has all sorts of lists for searching genre
• Find a gaming buddy in Japan to recommend titles for you
• type in “best selling japanese nds/ps3 games” and you’ll find several listings
• There are tons of English blogs describing Japanese gaming fun!

I didn’t cover PS3 titles because there isn’t any learning games as far as I know (which I could be wrong), so it comes down to simply fun games to look for.

Now to discuss a nasty sort of subject:

My Japanese Coach and Why I don’t recommend it

My Japanese Coach is a game designed to “teach Japanese”. As a rough overview it is a series of lessons with mini games, a small dictionary, audio comparison with a woman, and a stroke practice section to it. While this may seem dreamy, I’m going to shoot it down.

Lessons: I personally got my hands of this from a friend just to see if it was as cool as he was boasting. I gag. It gives you a mini test in the beginning. I personally think that unless you’ve lived under a rock, you’ll answer quite a few right. Who doesn’t know what samurai and karaoke is? Even if you score all the questions right, you don’t get very far in the lessons. The lessons themselves are presented with a Japanese woman, and are rather mundane (as i feel anything of this nature is).

As you complete each lesson you must complete several mini games to move on. You get tracked on how many times you’ve answered correctly in the mini games until you master words. More on that later though. When you finish with the lessons you can toggle back to ones already completed for reviews and things of that nature.

Ultimately I don’t like them because they seemed to be rushed and many explanations given were bad and had to many exceptions.

Mini games: I found that the mini games kinda suck, mostly because they’re reinforcing roman characters and not actual Japanese. To me they’re kinda repetitive and they get old really fast. Whack a mole was maybe not so bad though if it weren’t in roman characters.

Dictionary: The dictionary isn’t bad for a super beginner on the go electronic tool, as I have seen some people do this.

Writing and Voice Recording: The writing is a hit and miss, sometimes with wrong stroke orders. :/ A lot of people complain that their brush runs out of ink, or that they cannot complete a character for some unknown reason. As for the voice recording, I feel that it would have been far more beneficial if there were male and female versions. I don’t think Sam wants to sound like a Samantha.

Word Mastering: I found that once a word was “mastered” it didn’t appear anymore in the mini games. This really bit the dust as the words didn’t appear in the mini games hardly anymore. I mean, getting a mastered title for a word didn’t require much effort at all, and certainly wasn’t stuck in my memory at the time.

On top of all this there are a lot of bugs in the game, lots of errors, and the music, boring basic graphics, and interface get old real fast. Supposedly with newer released games they have addressed a lot of the bugs, but I guess that’s going to be a hit or miss if you’re buying now.

If you’re serious about learning Japanese, you’ll want to pass on this for obvious reasons. It is a time stealer. You’re better off doing a number of more brain against concrete like things than playing this game. If you just want to have some fun, or try to get someone interested in Japanese, I think this will be a turn off because it gets complicated fast, and without proper explanations, and completely wrong stroke orders and such all over the place, it might make that person not so interested anymore.